So...a week goes by and I am still struggling with the high lands...
### LATEST WIP ###
I know I can do some sculpting of the the highlands to make them more distinct, but don't know if this is even the direction I want to go....
Anyhoot, seeing as how I am working on the highlands, I offer some more on the Highlanders themselves.
The Clans have always been fighting something to keep what was theirs...be it from raiding monsters from the west, the rampaging elements of the mountains, or the other clans themselves. This constant warfare and struggle with the elements has molded them into a hardy and emotional people. "Fight hard, die hard, and party while you can for life is short" could very well be the highland moto. The most important things to a highlander is their Clan, Family and Sword. In that order. The Clan is who and what you are willing to die for, your Family is who you fight and die beside, and your Sword is what you die without...
Each Clan claims one of the many valleys which are dotted throughout the highlands and defends them against all comers when the need arises. Which is not to say that life here is only a struggle for survival. Just that everyone, Man, Woman or child, is never far from a weapon of some sort. A frying pan or kettle would suffice if the need was there. Within each Clanhold there are many families, often spread out over quite a few villages who trade with each other when the need or desire arises, with gatherings at the Clan seat every few months or so. These Meets are occasions of great feasting (NO cheese...that be reason for a good flogging that is), drinking, dancing and wooing of neighboring villages daughters. Oh, yes. Some trading and markets are also going on.... but mostly the feasting dancing wooing and drinking... The four previously mentioned activities are usually accompanied by "music" provided by what the highlanders lovingly call the "Goat Horns" which is an ungainly instrument made by filling a goatskin with air and forcing that air back out through various horns sewn into it. These horns, placed at various locations around the skin, combine to create a wailing that is said to guarantee that the Banshees of the Hag Mountains NEVER approach the highlands..... It should also be noted that the lowland clans have also created something similar, but using sheep skins and producing an even higher pitch....
More to come when I get some decent work done on this map...
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